Utah looks to adopt 1911 as state gun

While some states restrict gun laws, Utah looks to become the first with an official state gun. And that is much cooler than having a state flower.

The effort is to honor the memory of John M. Browning, the inventor of the M1911 pistol, according to this story. The bill passed the House Political Subdivisions Committee on a 9-2 vote. It will be debated by Utah’s House of Representatives this week.

Republican Rep. Carl Wimmer reportedly told the committee the gun should be a state symbol to honor Browning, a Utah native.

“He invented a firearm that has defended American values and the traditions of this country for 100 years,” Wimmer said.

Utah has 24 state symbols recognizing the history, geography and culture of the state. They include a cooking pot, tree, hymn and a folk dance.

About Author

A Navy brat who spent eight years in the Marines (two years aboard the carrier Independence). Worked in journalism in Eastern North Carolina through the latter part of the 90s, then became editor of Air Force Times in 2000. Stayed there five years, then took a break to finish some school. Now back in the game with Navy Times.

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After the end of the Spanish-American War, rather than granting independence to the Philippines once they had been seized from Spain, President McKinley decided that the U.S. would stay there and become an imperial power, as was the international fashion of the day. Filipino patriots took exception to this, feeling that US occupation was no more palatable than Spanish occupation. They fought a vigorous resistance against foreign domination. The Filipino patriots and were causing serious casualties among American occupation forces, so Browning designed this pistol as an Army sidearm to reduce the death toll among American forces in the Philippines. It had been noted that in battle, many Filipino patriots, after having been shot with existing U.S. Army-issue sidearms, were still able to kill Americans. The Browning automatic was designed for its stopping power and stayed in use for many years. As an Army medic from 1967-1973, I carried a somewhat later nineteen-teens version of the same weapon.